Survival
by Lennymuffin
Summary: This FanFic is the chapter where Rue dies and they've just announced the rule change- but in Gales P.O.V. (And he's seriously in love with Katniss so yeah... pretty depressed in this one...) Please R&R! :)


**Survival**

It is a cold Sunday, a perfect day for hunting. The freezing wind cuts through the holes in my jacket and stabbed by bitter chest. But I am fuming; I feel nothing. I was overjoyed at first, by the fact that Katniss now has a better chance of winning the _game_; after all, only district 2 and district 12 will benefit from this 'rule change'.

But then she said it. She said _his_ name. She just had to yell out "'Peeta", didn't she? Was this because she too wanted to make the new rule worthwhile? Or had they actually developed a... I dread to think of it... _connection?_ A shudder runs through my spine as I enter the woods, and it has nothing to do with the bitter cold.

I breathe in the cool, fresh air that is piercing my face _would she be breathing the same air?_ I ask myself, going deeper into the woods. The only place where I can be alone with her.

Not before long, I kill three squirrels add one rabbit before deciding to check on the snares I always leave overnight.

*FLASHBACK*

I had been checking my snares when I saw the girl in the woods. It was a Sunday in October, the air cool and pungent with dying things. She looked no older than twelve with a squirrel tied to her belt and a few plants in her hand; I recognised them as katniss roots. An unfortunate rabbit caught in one of my twitch-up snares was hanging by its neck in a thin wire a foot above her head. About 15 yards away was another. When the prey is caught, it is yanked into the air out of reach from other hungry animals. She dropped her roots to examine this one. Her frail looking fingers were just on the wire above one of the rabbits when my voice rang out. "That's dangerous."

She jumped back several feet as I materialized from behind a tree. Now that I could see her more clearly, I realized that I'd seen her around the Seam and at school. And one other time. She'd lost her father in the same blast that killed mine. In January, I'd stood by while she received her medal of valour in the Justice Building, another oldest child with no father. Just when my mother was pregnant, too. That child now has not father, but a busy mother that is never home due to his need to feed so any mouths.

"What's your name?" I questioned her, coming over and disengaging the rabbit from the bloody snare, and adding them to my collection of three that were hanging so innocently off of my belt.

"Catnip," she barely whispered.

"Well, Catnip, stealing is punishable by death, or hadn't you heard?" I reply.

"Katniss," she says louder. "And I wasn't stealing it; I just wanted to look at your snare. Mine never catch anything."

I scowled at her _a likely story_ I thought "So where'd you get the squirrel?"

"I shot it." She pulled a bow off her shoulder.

I stared at it. This had to be handmade. If people were caught selling weapons they could easily be executed – not that what we were doing was to risk-free.

"Can I see that?" She handed it over. "Just remember, stealing is punishable by death."

I smiled, and it almost hurt to do so. I hadn't smiled since... a _long_ time.

*FLASHBACK END*

I go deeper into the woods, so that you can hardly, if at all, make out the sun above the trees. Deep enough so no one can hear me. Deep enough so I can yell. So I yell. I yell and let all of the anger that has been trapped inside for the past few weeks wash over me. It feels good. Refreshing But I am still furious. Furious at the games for existing. _Enraged_ at the Capitol for making all of this happen. I now have to work four times as much to provide for both of our families, but this is nothing to the pressure Katniss must be feeling right now.

Poor Katniss, her only alley a twelve year old. Poor Katniss, her only alley dead. The funeral she had provided for the little girl was beautiful, and when she sang, even the birds stopped to listen. It had given everyone in district 12 and probably many others the one thing we didn't have: hope. Did she realise the up rival she would cause when she softly sand those simple notes? Did my constant rants on the Capitol have anything to do with her actions? Or was she thinking about that _boy_ when she planted flowers over the delicate body?

I shoot another rabbit.

I can only hope that she will survive.

**Hola readers! My class had to write the chapter where Rue dies in ****another persons' point of view so I uploaded mine here (obviously). Be sure to check out Of Roses and Lilies's version of this as well as a story written in Prim's point of view by this weird girl whose username is ****JulietInLove****... weird...**Hey Smartie!


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